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November 25, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Mar 19, 2001

Good signs for Japan-U.S. alliance

By Makoto Iokibe

Since the end of the Cold War, Japan-U.S. relations have been in turmoil. A highly significant development was a 1996 Japan-U.S. summit, in which Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and President Bill Clinton redefined the terms of the bilateral security system. The 50-year-old alliance will continue into...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 19, 2001

Indonesia's future is visible in Kalimantan

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- As the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan has been effectively cleansed of its Madurese minority, it has been another forceful reminder that communal conflict can be a terrifying reality that requires a quick and firm response if its effects are to be minimized and national unity...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 19, 2001

An African win in the war against AIDS

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- Half of all teenage boys in South Africa will eventually die of AIDS, predicted a United Nations report last year. "The world has never before experienced death rates of this magnitude across young adults of both sexes across all social strata," it added -- and noted that 70 percent of all...

COMMENTARY

Mar 19, 2001

U.S.-South Korea summit a good start

By Ralph Cossa

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's Washington summit meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush was not the unqualified success Kim had hoped for, but he did accomplish his primary objectives. As expected and desired, Bush endorsed Kim's Sunshine Policy of reconciliation and cooperation with North...

COMMENTARY

Mar 18, 2001

Solving the democracy deficit

By David Howell

LONDON -- Transparency and accountability are the buzzwords of the age. No gathering of policy experts or seminar on public affairs is complete without demands all round that the institutions of modern government, both national and global, especially global ones, should become more accountable and open...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 18, 2001

'Zapatour' gives hope to Mexico's poor

By Rick Mercier

Seven years after stunning the world, the leaders of the Zapatista rebels have come out of hiding in the Lacandon jungle and traveled to the concrete jungle of Mexico City to promote indigenous rights and work toward a just and peaceful resolution to the simmering conflict in Chiapas state.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 18, 2001

Torture continues to be big business

By Cesar Chelala

Recent events highlight the importance of the torture-weapons trade and the role that private companies in some countries, notably the United States and Britain, have in it. Their role was stressed in a recent Amnesty International document, "Stopping the Torture Trade," which calls for a stop to the...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 18, 2001

Confucius rescues China's communists

By David Wall

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Sometimes it takes a while for the significance of statements made by Chinese leaders to sink in. At a propaganda conference organized by the Communist Party Central Committee on Jan. 10, President Jiang Zemin said that the rule of law alone is not enough; there must also be rule...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 17, 2001

An opportunity for the world's poorest

By Kofi A. Annan

Roughly one-fifth of the world's population currently lives -- or tries to -- on less than $1 a day. That is a crude measure, but it translates into a daily grind of hunger, misery and disease that no human being should have to endure.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 17, 2001

Sadly, conflicts make sense

By Ramesh Thakur

Conflict is sometimes said to be the normal condition of human society; peace is the exception that requires explanation. Many of today's conflicts are peculiarly resistant to efforts at resolution because a set of contradictory logics tilts the balance toward their perpetuation. For example, while most...

COMMENTARY

Mar 17, 2001

Two old allies, two visions

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Remember how the senior George Bush, when he was president, admitted to having trouble with "the vision thing." Has that deficiency been passed on to his son?

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 17, 2001

Taliban fanaticism is not typical of Islam

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- The problem is that the world is actually a very provincial place. Most people in the non-Muslim parts of the world have never been in any Muslim country, so if Muslims anywhere in the world do something really stupid, they will readily believe that those actions are typical of Islam -- and...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.

A boom for business tourism in Japan?

By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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